By signing up, you agree to the Code of Conduct, which applies to all online and in-person spaces managed by the Public Lab community and non-profit. You also agree to our Privacy Policy.

As an open source community, we believe in open licensing of content so that other members of the community can leverage your work legally -- with attribution, of course. By joining the Public Lab site, you agree to release the content you post here under a Creative Commons Attribution Sharealike license, and the hardware designs you post under the CERN Open Hardware License 1.1 (full text). This has the added benefit that others must share their improvements in turn with you.

Log in

'stormwater' by liz

Stormwater is excess runoff from rain and snowmelt events that flows over land or impervious surfaces, such as paved streets, parking lots, and building rooftops, and does not soak into the ground. [paraphrased from EPA](https://www.epa.gov/npdes/npdes-stormwater-program)
Some of the concerns around stormwater are that "the runoff picks up pollutants like trash, chemicals, oils, and dirt/sediment that can harm our rivers, streams, lakes, and coastal waters" -- and human health.
_Lead image from Dr. Gloria Horning's [work](/notes/joyofsoy/11-09-2018/fighting-the-flood-community-activism-and-education-in-pensacola)_
### How is stormwater regulated?
Stormwater is one of the pollutants that is regulated under the [National Pollution Discharge Elimination System](https://www.epa.gov/npdes) (NPDES). "The NPDES stormwater program regulates some stormwater discharges from three potential sources: municipal separate storm sewer systems (MS4s), construction activities, and industrial activities."
### How is stormwater monitored?
Monitoring for stormwater can be challenging. Monitoring activities could explore facets of stormwater such as:
- The depth and duration of standing water in an area,
- How much rainwater can be harvested from an area,
- How much water can be absorbed by an area,
- How different ground covers react to stormwater events, and
- How well infrastructure is working to handle stormwater runoff.
This page was created to compile some activities, questions, updates and projects surrounding issues of stormwater. Click the links below to add to this growing resource!
## Stormwater Activities
[activities:stormwater]
### Frequently Asked Questions
[questions:stormwater]
****
## Updates
[notes:stormwater!question:stormwater]
****
## Project Pages
- 2018 [Pensacola Stormwater Project](https://publiclab.org/wiki/pensacola-stormwater-project)
- 2017 [New Orleans Stormwater Workshop Series](https://publiclab.org/notes/stevie/02-01-2017/stormwater-workshop-series-in-new-orleans)
- 2016 [New Orleans Flood Sensing Project ](https://publiclab.org/wiki/depth-flood-sensing-in-new-orleans)**
_Lead image from [Commons Wikimedia](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Stormwater_culvert_along_Dobney_Ave.jpg)_